Trails!

AM: 10 Providence Canyon to the Star.  

T- 1:14:15 (7:25) 147 *750' Vert

Bike Commute -

Bike Ride - 

I joined Corey, Braden and about 20 other guys for the tues night ride today.  Bad choice for the first real ride of the year.  I do not have my biking legs yet, that is for sure.  I was 25 miles into the ride, riding around Newton Lake when I realized I am bonking.  Not good.  I had brought only water on this ride as I was in a crazy rush to make it on time and didn't grab anything.  Oops.  Anyway, my butt is sore, my legs are still twitching from the effort and I am still cold from the cool weather.  Insane workout in the wind though.  Luckily Braden died as well so the last 10 miles we limped in at 15mph.

T-2:30:00 ~18mph 46 miles or so

AM: easy 7  felt decent.  Saddle sore

I just found out that I did NOT get into Lotoja.  Bummer.  I guess I can revisit my fall schedule now. 

PM: easy 4 planet walk

Its my Birthday!

Since I am turning 30, I decided to do my birthday challenge and run 16.25 miles.  Isn't that what you do?  No....I didn't even go 30K.  Too bad.

I did take a day off of work today and have enjoyed having some time to kill.  Trail Run!  I started at Providence canyon and hit the Deer Fence north to Dry Canyon.  I proceeded up Dry as far as I could go.  I only made it 2 miles before the snow made the trail impassible.  It will take some serious warm weather to get that trail open.  Lots of snow up high (6000' and higher).  4.7 miles in 49 mins

My birthday self portrait at my turn around point - 

I headed down and back to the car.  Instead of getting in, I kept going on the trail south to Millville Canyon and proceeded to run up that canyon.  I didn't even make it 2 miles before I had to head back to the car.  It was steep but runnable.  Very comparable to Dry, only it is a dirt road instead of singletrack.  I had to turn around before the snowline so I am not sure how far I could have gone.  Another day maybe. 

16.25 tough miles in 2:29:00 (9:10) 152 ave *3300' vertical

Planet Walk 6  

My stomach hurt from all the junk food from yesterday.  It was so worth it though.  

Long Trail Run - 

I am a lucky man to be able to spend the weekend without kids with my wife in Lava Hot springs.  That is pretty nice of her, but the really nice thing was that she let me go running for half the day Saturday with no complaining.  I figured since I was only 30 mins from the Pocatello 50 Miler course, I had better go do a recon run of it.  Jon joined me and also tour guide local Luke Nelson showed us around.  We did the first 1/3 of the course with a 5 mile loop added onto the end to get us over 20 miles for the run.  

The course is not easy.  It started out tame enough with nice singletrack heading up a hollow. 10% grade or so for the first climb.  We leveled off more or less and sat back and enjoyed the nice muddy trail.  Soon we dropped down a canyon and lost all the elevation we had gained.  No big deal but the next 3 miles we were to climb about 2000' with most of the climb off trail straight up the side of a mountain.  Not easy. 

First Half Done -

 Second Half -

I soon realized I was feeling sub-par for the day and settled into my grandpa pace up the hill.  Things perked up for me at the top as I had the energy to run down hills just fine.  Other than some serious stomach cramps (side aches) things were looking up.  That is until Luke took us back up another 500' hill. I didn't have a decent uphill gear and got dropped (even with their easy pace).  It took a while on the downhill to catch back up but I more or less just survived the rest of the run.  Oh well, gut it out and just put in the effort. 

The course is sweet with nasty vertical and lots of mud and snow (hopefully most will melt in the next 3 weeks).  I was amazed to see the huge network of singletrack that is available to Pocatello-ins (Pocatins?)...people who live in Pocatello.  They are very lucky to have so many trails available year round.  I am stoked and scared for the big race as it will be nasty-hard.

T-3:28:30 (9:53) 21.1 miles 155 ave 178 max

SportTracks showed the Vert at 4100' and Loss at 4700'

I finished off the day relaxing in scorching hot pools and working on my tan. 

*Weekly Summary

Vert = 8150'

Miles = 82.25